No!! The day camp sessions are designed as an introduction to a foreign language. Program activities bring the language to life with the guidance of our experienced and enthusiastic staff.

No!! Research shows that immersion education can be effective for a wide variety of learners, including non-native English speakers, students with many special education needs and socio-economic challenges, in addition to academically/intellectually gifted students.

Absolutely! It is an activity-based program specifically designed to help kids see how much fun it is to learn another language. The more fun they have, the more they want to learn! The children are immersed in both language and culture through their active participation in activities, games, meals, sports, music, art, and storytelling, all of which reinforce language learning and cultural knowledge in the context of “real” life situations and conversations.

Yes, but the staff will only speak Spanish unless there is an emergency situation. Our many years of teaching and traveling experience with children confirm this approach.

The program has a staff ratio of no more than 8 children to each staff member. These staff are the children’s leaders for the day’s activities, their lunchtime and their free time.

Isla Esmeralda staff is composed of veteran, native-level certified teachers and coaches as well as young, enthusiastic, energetic counselors-in-training.

Parents will drop off their child daily at the check-in point (follow the signs) between 8:30-9 a.m. and pick them up at the same place between 4:45-5:15 p.m.

Every day you and your child will be warmly greeted by staff speaking Spanish! Not to worry: we’ll help you understand what we say by using gestures and pictures and, of course, we will respond to your English in Spanish, or English as needed.

Though we are using a beachfront property, for safety reasons none of our activities will involve entering the ocean.

No, both are included in the cost of the program. In fact, the students will participate in the preparation and serving of their own meals as part of the language program! If your child has special dietary restrictions, please use our health history form to specify them.

Unfortunately, to keep our fees low for all attendees, we cannot offer scholarships at this time.

We have worked hard to keep the price for the program very affordable. We do, however, offer a discount of 5 percent for additional sessions attended by the same child or for a second child from the same family attending a session. Discounts may not be combined.

If you need to get in touch with your children, just call our office and we will have your child call you right back. In order to reduce the temptation to use English, children are asked to leave their electronic devices at home.

We have worked hard to keep the price for the program very affordable. We do, however, offer a discount of 5 percent for additional sessions attended by the same child or for a second child from the same family attending a session. Discounts may not be combined.

Most participants will be beginners or have no language experience. Our program’s curriculum includes an extensive variety of activities for beginners from which we choose a subset for any given session. Our staff brings a new set of talents and activities every summer so there is something new to learn each time.

No! We will stay on site and the children will have no opportunity to buy anything with real money, just using “camp currency” to learn transaction skills in Spanish.

This first year of operation, we expect that all children will be beginners or have minimal Spanish language experience so the content and concepts will be basically the same but activities will vary and can be adapted to age-appropriate levels.